Obituaries

Richard Johnson obituary: Serious and thoughtful judge

His judgments were characterised by a strong element of common sense

Richard Johnson was known for his even-handed approach to those who appeared in his court.

Sat Aug 24 2019 - 00:56

Richard Johnson
Born: October 27th, 1937
Died: August 4th, 2019

Mr Justice Richard Parnell Fitzgibbon Johnson, the former president of the High Court, who has died in his 82nd year, was noted for the strong admixture of skill, courtesy and competence which he brought to his courtroom, as well as for the wit and conviviality which, from his student days, enlivened both his social and family life.

He belonged to a family with strong and widespread historical and legal connections. His father, also named Richard, who was from Rathkeale, was appointed as a district justice in Kerry during the Civil War, and there were also other strong historical links, including through his great-grandfather (another Richard Johnson) who lived in Avoca, to the Parnell family. His mother, Anne (nee Shortis), had a brother, Paddy, who had fought in 1916 alongside The O’Rahilly.

Ricky Johnson undoubtedly inherited many of his characteristics and values from his father, who was a man of strong and humane views. These were displayed on many occasions, such as when his father rejected the widespread practice of committing orphan or disadvantaged children to industrial schools.

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Richard Johnson snr was also famous for having travelled from Tralee around the Dingle peninsula by trawler to hold a court in south Kerry during the Civil War in order to avoid a planned IRA ambush on the road. He was also the author of a noted courtroom drama, The Evidence I Shall Give, which enjoyed several productions in the Abbey Theatre.

Although Ricky Johnson was born in the Hatch Street Nursing Home in Dublin, he always retained his primary connection with his Munster origins. He was quintessentially a Kerry member of the southern circuit of that all-embracing company of the Bar of Ireland, following education at Glenstal Abbey School in Co Limerick, at University College Dublin and the King’s Inns.

Debates

At UCD he was a skilful debater, particularly in the often chaotic and ribald atmosphere of the Literary and Historical Society (L&H), where his interjections were as sharply pointed as his speeches and his occasional flights of fancy. His contemporaries there included the historian Owen Dudley Edwards, and another future High Court judge, TC Smyth, who used to record the society’s minutes in rhyming couplets.

For his overall excellence as a debater, he was awarded the society’s gold medal, and he was wearing his L&H tie when he was buried.

The L&H debates were held in the old Physics Theatre in Earlsfort Terrace, a combination of bear garden (which dictionaries define as “an establishment for bear-baiting or similar practices or entertainment”) and Greek agora, in which only the most skilled debaters could hold their own.

Ricky (as he was rapidly and universally known) was more than equal to the challenge; one of the many occasions when he displayed his mastery of the occasion, and of his audience, was when he led the entire Physics Theatre assembly of students into a rendition of Three Blind Mice, sung in parts.

Nuala Gleeson, another young student in the audience on that memorable occasion, was to become his wife in 1966.

He was also a noted member of the UCD Dramatic Society – or Dramsoc, as it was colloquially known – where his contemporaries included people like Fergus and Rosaleen Linehan, and he was reputed to be the youngest actor ever to have played the part of Old Mahon in Synge’s Playboy of the Western World. His success in this and other roles indeed tempted him, for a time, towards a career in the theatre, but the law eventually won out.

Thoughtful professional

Behind his effervescent humour there was, of course, always a serious and thoughtful judicial professional. He was appointed to the High Court, of which he became president in January 1987, and demonstrated in that role that he was ever conscious of the need to balance the strict requirements of the law against the more flexible, and often more humane, requirements of justice.

This generated a record of judgments characterised by a strong element of common sense, in cases including (as a member of the special criminal court) the Adare crimes. This appointment was notable for the opportunities it provided not only for the exercise of his legal experience, but of his organisational skill.

Litigants and lawyers alike learned to value the courtesy and even-handedness of his approach to those who appeared in his court, whether as interested parties, prosecutors or defendants, or indeed as witnesses or ordinary citizens.

His Kerry origins, and his appreciation of non-metropolitan values, undoubtedly contributed to his policy of sending the High Court, on occasion, into the provinces on circuit.

The consequences of this policy, whether intended or unintended, were generally beneficial: lawyers of every stripe were frequently reported to be considering settlement terms, as an alternative to prolonged legal wrangling, even as they passed the Red Cow hostelry on their way out of Dublin. The respect and affection with which he was regarded within his profession spoke for itself.

He is survived by his wife Nuala, their children Rebecca, Murray, Kerry and Emily, and by his sisters Mary, Paddy and Ann.

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